Bed once owned by Henry Clay for sale

BLOOMINGTON -- A bed made for Kentucky statesman Henry Clay is for sale at a Bloomington auction house.

The four-poster bed made from rosewood is considered a one-of-a-kind piece that is valued at about $10,000. But it's anyone's guess what it will fetch at auction late Friday.

Auctioneer Jason Penny says the value of the bed will be determined by how much people want it and how they view Henry Clay, a former speaker of the U.S. House and secretary of state.

Penny said the bed was found in an 1860s-era house in southern Illinois owned by a family with roots in Kentucky.

Workers at Clay's Lexington, Ky. estate told Penny the cabinetmaker who made Clay's furniture held a patent on how the parts of the bed fit together. The bed has the same design.